


Five Times Tony Turned Steve Down...

by Sonora



Series: 21st Century Boys [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Light Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pseudo-Incest, Relationship Problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:37:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3903283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sonora/pseuds/Sonora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Steve attempt to navigate the changes in their relationship, their lives, and themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Tony Turned Steve Down...

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of the series where Steve was never frozen, and Tony fell in love with him a long time ago.
> 
> I wasn't planning on writing any more for this series. CA: TWS was a rather painful movie for me, for a number of reasons, and I only got through it the one time. But there were a lot of interesting little character threads in Age of Ultron that were worth exploring with these two and the dynamic they've got in this AU. I know I have to deal with TWS, so if I get stuff wrong, please be patient.
> 
> (My word processor was eating large sections of text when I posted the last story. That problem has been fixed, but if there are chunks of sentences missing, please let me know)

"It's just a S.H.I.E.L.D. event, Tony.  It's not a big deal."  
   
"If it's not a big deal, why's it matter if I'm there?"  
   
"Because I invited you."  
   
"And I'm declining.  See?  Not a big deal to me, not a big deal to you.  Problem solved."  
   
Tony doesn't have to look up from his work bench to hear Steve sucking air, the way he does when he's really annoyed and trying not to show it.  And yeah, maybe he's deliberately provoking his lover, but the last thing he wants to do with his Friday night is this.  
   
Things have been different. Clearer.  Since New York.  Since Pepper almost died; since Extremis.  
   
Tony, with some help from Bruce, was able to get the virus to twist back into it's original form, do what it was intended to do.  It also fused his arc reactor into his body, making it impossible to remove, even through the shrapnel has been pushed out (pushed, literally pushed, which was at once fascinating and disgusting and _painful_ ).  Tony's not sure what that means for him, if he's a cyborg or a failed experiment or something else entirely.  Steve's told him multiple times he doesn't care, but that's not really the point.  
   
It's also not why he doesn't want to go to the party tonight.  
   
This was supposed to be their event.  _Theirs_.  A first time out in public sort of thing.  Few people know the real backstory, with the cover story about the crash and the ice accepted all but universally, and enough time's passed that a relationship forming isn't out of the question.  
   
S.H.I.E.L.D., though.   
   
Steve and S.H.I.E.L.D.  
   
Tony's not sure how he feels about that.   
   
He's not sure how Steve feels about that.  
   
Just that he goes to bed alone more often than not these days, even after Steve promised he was backing off, quitting the Army, quitting all the soldiering bullshit.  

Steve keeps saying that S.H.I.E.L.D. is different, that S.H.I.E.L.D. is worthy in a way the Army wasn’t. But Tony fails to understand how an organization operating independently of any government controls at all is going to be any more responsible than one choking beneath them.  But Steve's not in charge of anything anymore, back in the field where he likes to be, his little hand-picked team a group of people Tony does not trust.  At all.  Most of them are ex-Special Forces, and Steve should fucking know what kind of men quit Special Forces to go work for independent contractors.  The ones that aren't former military, like that Rumlow guy, are even more suspect.  
   
Spy agency, sure.  Black ops unit, why not?  But a spy agency employing black ops units masquerading as a peacekeeping organization?   
   
The whole thing is a ticking time bomb.  Can’t mix missions like that.  
   
But beyond the sheer cognitive dissonance of it all, it kind of pisses Tony off. 

Because he got himself, his company, out of the war business. While Steve chose S.H.I.E.L.D. over him.   
   
So no, he's got no intention of being Steve's arm candy at one of its events.  Especially when most of the people in attendance hate him for taking Stark Industry's proprietary weapons systems technology off the market, right down to the patents for the alloys.  
   
But Steve - true to _Steve_ \- just won’t leave it alone. “You're acting like a child."  
   
"Extremis or not, I'm still fifty years younger than you, Steve," Tony replies, attention focused on the faulty gauntlet in front of him.  He's been having some trouble with the yaw actuator on the wrist.  It's minor, but enough to throw him off in flight.  No good.  "I'm always going to be a child to you."  
   
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Steve’s probably got his arms crossed. That his I’ve-got-my-arms-crossed voice.

“Means I don’t want to come out of the fucking closet in a room full of Daddy’s work buddies,” Tony snaps.  
   
 Steve doesn't respond.  And doesn't respond. And doesn’t respond.  
   
When Tony finally turns around, Steve’s gone.

He loses his interest in his project, downs a few beers, answers a few emails, goes over a couple of things, and finally crashes face-first down in bed, the New York skyline spread around him and the sheets to his left cold.

The morning’s a different story, though.

In the morning, Steve’s there. Next to him. Awake. Spooned up to him, arm draped across Tony’s chest, fingers gently brushing the inside of his bicep, his shoulder, the edge of his arc reactor. It’s intimate in a way they haven’t been intimate lately - lately, it’s been nothing but short visits marked by take-out and sex sessions. Tony keeps his eyes closed and breathing even, wanting to enjoy whatever this is for as long as it lasts.

Steve kisses his cheek. “It was a shit party. You didn’t miss much.”  
   
_Missed you_ , Tony thinks but doesn’t say it. Instead, he turns over on his back, pillowing his head on the palm of one hand, brushing the back of the other up Steve’s chest. “That obvious, when I’m awake?”

“I’ve always been able to tell when you were asleep. Ever since you were a boy.”

Tony sighs. “Yeah. You’ve been putting up with my shit since I was a baby, right?”  
   
Steve ignores it. Steve always ignores it. Moves around his fits and moods like nothing’s wrong at all, and while something that’s exactly what Tony needs, it usually just makes him feel worse. “You know,” Steve says instead, “for a man who says he's not worried about how other people see him, you seem to care an awful lot."  
   
"Fuck off,” he grumbles.  
   
“It was your idea, bringing our relationship out in the open.”

“I want to.” Tony sighs; Steve’s fingers are still stroking his bare skin, and it feels wonderful. “We need to.” 

“We can’t keep going like this.”  
   
“No. We can’t.”

“So where are you at, Tony? What’s my boy thinking?”

 _I want you to quit S.H.I.E.L.D._ , Tony thinks, but while he can logic his way through that idea all he wants, it’s still coming from a place of jealousy. He can’t take the man he loves away from the job that man loves.

Dammit. It’s so much harder to be a selfish prick when Steve’s not cuddling him, when the morning’s not bright around them. When things are the way they’re supposed to be.

"We were supposed to have time,” Tony murmurs.  
   
"Tony, for all we know, you and I are going to live forever.  There will always be time."  
   
He shrugs Steve’s arm off and rolls over on his stomach. “So what does that make me? A selfish asshole?”

“Makes you human, baby.”

**Author's Note:**

> (9/29/16 Update) 
> 
> So there's been a ton of interest in this story, which is kind of strange actually, and I am considering finishing it. I hate leaving things unfinished.
> 
> CA: Civil War was not my favorite movie, especially in terms of Stony possibilities, and it kind of screws up my original plan here. I'm noodling something else out. It may work, it may not, but if it does, I promise I'll post it up!


End file.
